The present invention relates to a miniature portable radio communication apparatus enhancing portability due to a miniature configuration, promoting easy manipulation, and allowing the user to see a display and/or operate keys at all times.
A hand-held radio telephone or similar portable radio communication apparatus is generally made up of a radio unit, a transmitter, a receiver, an operating section including various keys or buttons, and a display for displaying various kinds of information including time. The prerequisite with this kind of apparatus is that the transmitter and the receiver match in position with the user's mouth and ear, respectively, resulting in a bulky and uneasy-to-carry configuration. In the light of this, there has been proposed a foldable radio communication apparatus having a first casing loaded with a transmitter, display and so forth, and a second casing loaded with a receiver, operating section and so forth. The first and second casings are hinged to be movable toward and away from each other. With such a configuration, the apparatus is folded up when out of operation or unfolded, or opened, when in use.
The conventional foldable radio apparatus is easy to carry since it is substantially halved in size when out of use. However, this type of conventional radio apparatus has a problem that the keys cannot be operated when the apparatus is in the folded position, i.e., the user has to unfold the two casings every time the user desires to operate the keys. Another problem is that when folded the apparatus conceals the display thereof and, therefore, prevents the user to see time or similar information. In addition, although the overall size is substantially halved, the overall thickness is doubled.